3,259 research outputs found
Spiral Structure and Galaxy Environment
Among 330 normal spirals of types Sa-Sc the fraction of objects exhibiting
``ring'', ``intermediate'' and ``spiral'' arm varieties does not correlated
with environment. A similar conclusion appears to apply to the arm varieties of
123 barred spirals of types SBa-SBc. It is concluded that, among the northern
Shapley-Ames galaxies, the distinction between the spiral and ring varieties of
spiral arms is, within the accuracy of presently available data, independent of
galaxy environment. This result suggests that the detailed morphology of spiral
arms depends primarily on parent galaxy characteristics, rather than on the
galactic environment.Comment: 8 pages. no figures. To be published in the August 2202 issue of A
The Relationship Between Stellar Light Distributions of Galaxies and their Formation Histories
A major problem in extragalactic astronomy is the inability to distinguish in
a robust, physical, and model independent way how galaxy populations are
related to each other and to their formation histories. A similar, but
distinct, and also long standing question is whether the structural appearances
of galaxies, as seen through their stellar light distributions, contain enough
physical information to offer this classification. We argue through the use of
240 images of nearby galaxies that three model independent parameters measured
on a single galaxy image reveal its major ongoing and past formation modes, and
can be used as a robust classification system. These parameters quantitatively
measure: the concentration (C), asymmetry (A) and clumpiness (S) of a galaxy's
stellar light distribution. When combined into a three dimensional `CAS' volume
all major classes of galaxies in various phases of evolution are cleanly
distinguished. We argue that these three parameters correlate with important
modes of galaxy evolution: star formation and major merging activity. This is
argued through the strong correlation of Halpha equivalent width and broad band
colors with the clumpiness parameter, the uniquely large asymmetries of 66
galaxies undergoing mergers, and the correlation of bulge to total light
ratios, and stellar masses, with the concentration index. As an obvious goal is
to use this system at high redshifts to trace evolution, we demonstrate that
these parameters can be measured, within a reasonable and quantifiable
uncertainty, with available data out to z ~ 3 using the Hubble Space Telescope
GOODS ACS and Hubble Deep Field images.Comment: ApJS, in press, 30 pages, Figures 15 and 16 are in color. For a full
resolution version, please go to http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~cc/cas.p
Bar-Halo Friction in Galaxies II: Metastability
It is well-established that strong bars rotating in dense halos generally
slow down as they lose angular momentum to the halo through dynamical friction.
Angular momentum exchanges between the bar and halo particles take place at
resonances. While some particles gain and others lose, friction arises when
there is an excess of gainers over losers. This imbalance results from the
generally decreasing numbers of particles with increasing angular momentum, and
friction can therefore be avoided if there is no gradient in the density of
particles across the major resonances. Here we show that anomalously weak
friction can occur for this reason if the pattern speed of the bar fluctuates
upwards. After such an event, the density of resonant halo particles has a
local inflexion created by the earlier exchanges, and bar slowdown can be
delayed for a long period; we describe this as a metastable state. We show that
this behavior in purely collisionless N-body simulations is far more likely to
occur in methods with adaptive resolution. We also show that the phenomenon
could arise in nature, since bar-driven gas inflow could easily raise the bar
pattern speed enough to reach the metastable state. Finally, we demonstrate
that mild external, or internal, perturbations quickly restore the usual
frictional drag, and it is unlikely therefore that a strong bar in a galaxy
having a dense halo could rotate for a long period without friction.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, to appear in Ap
Pseudobulges in the Disk Galaxies NGC 7690 and NGC 4593
We present Ks-band surface photometry of NGC 7690 (Hubble type Sab) and NGC
4593 (SBb). We find that, in both galaxies, a major part of the "bulge" is as
flat as the disk and has approximately the same color as the inner disk. In
other words, the "bulges" of these galaxies have disk-like properties. We
conclude that these are examples of "pseudobulges" -- that is, products of
secular dynamical evolution. Nonaxisymmetries such as bars and oval disks
transport disk gas toward the center. There, star formation builds dense
stellar components that look like -- and often are mistaken for -- merger-built
bulges but that were constructed slowly out of disk material. These
pseudobulges can most easily be recognized when, as in the present galaxies,
they retain disk-like properties. NGC 7690 and NGC 4593 therefore contribute to
the growing evidence that secular processes help to shape galaxies.
NGC 4593 contains a nuclear ring of dust that is morphologically similar to
nuclear rings of star formation that are seen in many barred and oval galaxies.
The nuclear dust ring is connected to nearly radial dust lanes in the galaxy's
bar. Such dust lanes are a signature of gas inflow. We suggest that gas is
currently accumulating in the dust ring and hypothesize that the gas ring will
starburst in the future. The observations of NGC 4593 therefore suggest that
major starburst events that contribute to pseudobulge growth can be episodic.Comment: 10 pages, 3 Postscript figures; requires emulateapj.cls,
apjfonts.sty, and psfig.sty; accepted for publication in ApJ; for a version
with full resolution figures, see
http://chandra.as.utexas.edu/~kormendy/n7690.pd
An inner ring and the micro lensing toward the Bulge
All current Bulge-Disk models for the inner Galaxy fall short of reproducing
self-consistently the observed micro-lensing optical depth by a factor of two
(). We show that the least mass-consuming way to increase the
optical depth is to add density roughly half-way the observer and the highest
micro-lensing-source density. We present evidence for the existence of such a
density structure in the Galaxy: an inner ring, a standard feature of barred
galaxies. Judging from data on similar rings in external galaxies, an inner
ring can contribute more than 50% of a pure Bulge-Disk model to the
micro-lensing optical depth. We may thus eliminate the need for a small viewing
angle of the Bar. The influence of an inner ring on the event-duration
distribution, for realistic viewing angles, would be to increase the fraction
of long-duration events toward Baade's window. The longest events are expected
toward the negative-longitude tangent point at -22\degr . A properly
sampled event-duration distribution toward this tangent point would provide
essential information about viewing angle and elongation of the over-all
density distribution in the inner Galaxy.Comment: 9 pages, 7(15) figs, LaTeX, AJ (accepted
Molecular Gas, Dust and Star Formation in the Barred Spiral NGC 5383
We present multi-wavelength (interferometer and single-dish CO J=1-0, Halpha,
broadband optical and near-infrared) observations of the classic barred spiral
NGC 5383. We compare the observed central gas and dust morphology to the
predictions of recent hydrodynamic simulations. In the nuclear region, our
observations reveal three peaks lying along a S-shaped gas and dust
distribution. In contrast, the model predicts a circumnuclear ring, not the
observed S-shaped distribution; moreover, the predicted surface density
contrast between the central gas accumulation and the bar dust lanes is an
order of magnitude larger than observed. The discrepancies are not due to
unexplored model parameter space or a nuclear bar but are probably due to the
vigorous (7 solar masses per year) star formation activity in the center.
As is common in similar bars, the star formation rate in the bar between the
bar ends and the central region is low (~0.5 solar masses per yr), despite the
high gas column density in the bar dust lanes; this is generally attributed to
shear and shocks. We note a tendency for the HII regions to be associated with
the spurs feeding the main bar dust lanes, but these are located on the leading
side of the bar. We propose that stars form in the spurs, which provide a high
column density but low shear environment. HII regions can therefore be found
even on the leading side of the bar because the ionizing stars pass
ballistically through the dust laneComment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, 33 pages
(includes 10 figures
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